Fire or Leave

How it plays

1. Fight or leave. A small fire on a site — shelter, generator, battery cabinet, job trailer, fuel spill, break-room kitchen. A few seconds to decide.
2. Read the label. If you fight, pick the extinguisher rated for that class: A, B, C or K.
3. PASS. Pull the pin, aim low at the base, squeeze, sweep side to side — from the right distance, before the tank runs dry.

Fight only if all five hold

• Small and contained. Confined to where it started — not spreading across a room or up a wall.
• The right extinguisher. Rated for this fire’s class on its label, and you know how to use it.
• No heavy smoke. Smoke is toxic before it is hot; heavy smoke means a bigger fire than it looks.
• A clear exit at your back. The fire is not between you and the way out.
• The alarm is already raised. Someone else is calling it in, so help comes whether or not the extinguisher works.

If any one is missing, leave, close the door behind you if it is safe, and call it in. A lithium battery in thermal runaway is a leave even with the right extinguisher in hand. Leaving is never the wrong call.

A game, not the training itself: 29 CFR 1910.157(g) requires your employer to train you on the general principles of extinguisher use and the hazards of incipient-stage fire fighting. Your site’s emergency action plan governs what you do on your site.